Taking the Fifth: Life at a hotel restaurant versus an independent restaurant

The David Bazirgan era is officially underway at the Fifth Floor. Today, Inside Scoop continues Taking the Fifth: a weekly miniseries of sorts that will explore, among other things, all the aspects that go into a new chef (Bazirgan) entering an existing restaurant.. We’ve hit on wine pairings and the Fifth Floor legacy. Today, it’s all about hotel restaurants.

The Fifth Floor is only a block away from Chez Papa Resto. Granted, it’s a long block, but it might as well be miles. For a chef like David Bazirgan, going from a career spent working in independently-owned restaurants like Chez Papa to a national hotel and restaurant company like Kimpton is a world of difference.

The most immediate shift? As executive chef at Chez Papa Resto, Bazirgan was used to running the entire show — doing training, hiring staff, being a jack of all trades. Now, it’s flipped. In his short time on the job, he’s undergone extensive Kimpton training, from the financial side to the company’s emphasis on “Kimpton culture” (caring for your guests, your employees).

On the financial education side, webinars and seminars are available through a little thing called Kimpton University; for example, last week, Bazirgan attended a class on increasing profitability.

“It’s pretty cool. You show up with a notebook and it’s a free education from people who know what they’re talking about,” he says.

This was in addition to substantial orientation sessions and a multi-day Kimpton training session up in Seattle. Hey, that’s corporate life.

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Then there’s the actual day-to-day changes that come with a hotel restaurant. (Sidenote: it’s not a union hotel; that was the first question Bazirgan asked when initially interviewing for the Fifth Floor gig.)

“Here, it’s a 24-hour operation,” says Bazirgan. “If you want to start in the morning, we have breakfast form 7 to 10, then mid-day in-room dining. In-between, you might have a lunch banquet or two. Then dinner service, six nights a week. Then we have a late-night menu, so it’s constant.”

All that comes in addition to room service and private dining (there are four private dining rooms at the Fifth Floor). The flurry of responsibilities means that organization is key. Bazirgan — or his sous chef — sits down on a weekly basis with other hotel folks to plan the week’s events.

But every once in a while, there’s a reminder that it’s not. Nothing better illustrates this than an attempt to change a lightbulb. Instead of simply changing it on his own, Bazirgan had to call engineering and put in a request. Then someone came and changed it for him.